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Who Will Get The Fifth Franchise? Friday 15 April 2005 by Luke Tagg Enter The St George's Dragon? I don't think I've written a single word about the Super 14 yet and the decision as to who will be awarded the fifth South African franchise will be announced today. So I thought I'd better get cracking. Firstly - just so you know where I stand - I don't support the concept of a Super 14 one bit. We can't even get one single side of ours into the top six of the Super 12 - let alone the finals or winning the damn thing - and to think that a fifth side will fare any better is just ludicrous. But I - like everyone else - am going to have to live with it, so I will. No point bitching about it once we all know what the problem is with no means to solve it. One thing I hope it will do is give us a wider range of players for Jake White and his black-hating, racist-scum pal Andre Markgraaff to choose from when selecting Springboks. At the moment Jake is having to pick players who haven't played a stitch of rugby because they're always on the bench or considered quota players, but I imagine a lot of those players will be queuing up to get some game time with the new franchise. Ah yes - the new franchise..... In case you haven't been following the bid process, or if you have but need a refresher course, here's what's been going on. All the competing unions had to make presentations to SARU last week outlining why they should be one of the five franchises. All the existing Super 12 franchises had to do it as well, in what was pretty much an exercise in futility - all four of them are going to keep their status, although some of them will have additional regions tagged onto them. But as SARU pointed out - they wanted everyone to bid so that the existing unions could refocus on what their obligations and aims for rugby in South Africa are. With the existing four franchises a dead cert to retain their positions only one franchise spot was left available, and the two unions competing to be awarded it are Eastern Cape and Central Cheetahs. We'll know today which of them get it, and once we do expect all hell to break loose in South African rugby. Both had compelling cases. The Cheetahs are second only to Western Province in terms of producing Springboks and they are second only to the Lions in terms of Currie Cup log consistency. They have a deep, ingrained passion for the game and should be able to meet the financial demands the Super 14 would place on them, not to mention the administrative ones. The Eastern Cape would never be able to produce a side as strong as a Cheetahs one, but pretty much the sole tack in their bid was their record of transformation. According to them 43 percent of all rugby players in this country are in the Eastern Cape, and 68 percent of those are black. No union comes close to them in terms of their transformation record and the Eastern Cape region has by far the biggest black supporter and player base in the country. And if you want to impress folks, talk about your excellent transformation record..... However - news doing the rounds is that the Cheetahs are almost a shoo-in to get it, which is going to piss a lot of people off. A lot. The government has been very vocal in its support of the Eastern Cape bid, from sports minister Makhenkesi Stofile to president Thabo Mbeki, and even SARU vice president Mike Stofile (related?) has indicated he believes it should go to the Eastern Cape. But there are doubts about the ability of the Eastern Cape to administer the franchise, primarily because of the appalling corruption and maladministration in all sectors of the region. Secondly - there's no way the Eastern Cape could possibly produce a team as competitive as the Cheetahs, and surely we want to have the strongest team available? So basically it comes down to whether you're prepared to accept a political decision in the interests of the game as a whole (Eastern Cape), or whether you'd prefer it to be a purely rugby-based decision (Central Cheetahs). Hardly an easy decision. And if it's hard for me can you imagine the poor bastards who have to announce it? If the Cheetahs lose SARU can expect to get sued, and if the Eastern Cape lose SARU are going to have a barrage of hot lead thrown their way by just about everyone, from the region itself to the ANC Youth League and the government. Some have suggested that the two regions merge, but that's not going to happen. It's far too impractical. Here's the thing: I don't support the involvement of politics in sport - not for any sport - but in this case I'm going to make an exception. I have to, because I believe it is in the interests of the game to award the franchise to the Eastern Cape. Remember that great day in 1995? Sure you do. Just about every single South African - black and white - does. Nelson Mandela wearing his Springbok jersey and holding the Webb Ellis trophy aloft with Francois Pienaar - one of the single greatest moments in our country's history. I remember being astounded at the time that sport could succeed in uniting people where all else failed, and I was filled with excitement at the prospect of black people actually becoming rugby fans. For on that day most black people were rugby fans, but since that day we've only gone backwards. Ten years after that victory for rugby and our country there is still minimal black support of rugby, and it's no wonder - hardly any blacks are playing rugby at professional level. Our U-19's and U-21's always have tons of black players in them, yet those numbers dwindle dramatically at Super 12 and international level. A number of the unions hire black players as window dressing only, yet fail to really develop and nurture them into becoming Springbok greats. And I really don't understand it. I know that Andre Markgraaff pretty much runs rugby in this country, so I suppose that's your first clue. But even if you're a racist scumbag and hate black people, then surely just from a financial perspective it makes sense to develop and transform the game? Black people have traditionally supported soccer as their number one game of choice, but soccer in South Africa is a joke. They hauled in dozens of referees recently for fixing matches, and the whole scene is riddled with other corruption. Rugby - from a business point of view - should be taking advantage. They should be going out and saying: "Okes - check how crap soccer is right now. Soccer has also had a decade to develop but it's only gone backwards. We've got a really cool sport here - why don't you come play and watch rugby?" Or have our rugby administrators not noticed the population demographic in this country? More black players means more black supporters means more expectation means better results. And more money. You can start filling out stadiums again, which would mean you could drop the ticket prices. Rugby would get the support base boost it so badly needs, and the politicians would be satisfied and who knows - maybe they'd even piss off. Everyone - except a handful of disgruntled racists - would win. The Eastern Cape franchise might get badly beaten at first, but they would get better and more importantly black players would get the necessary game time to give them more experience and to sharpen their skills against the toughest opposition in the world. If our best four sides are in the bottom six of the Super 12 what difference will one more side make? Why should it be a lily-white side with an almost exclusively white, Afrikaans support base? It might as well be a side that will bring more supporters to the game - not one that will turn them away. I'm fond of the Cheetahs - I think they play some excellent rugby - but I believe that the sport needs to develop now. It's time to move out of the dark ages and really listen to the transformation song, because it's not going to stop playing. I believe this is the ideal opportunity to really get stuck into transformation, and I believe it can only benefit the game in the long run. Luke Tagg Cape Town, South Africa  Twelfth Man archive  Reply to this article  Print this article  Send article to a friend